Former Cadbury global corporate affairs director Alex Cole has left the agency with no job to go to. An insider said that Cole intends to return to an in-house role, where she feels she will be better suited.

Separately, Ruth Settle, previously group director of comms at ITV, has joined Freuds as a corporate consultant to work across a range of corporate and media business. Settle left ITV in January.

A spokesman for Freuds said: ‘We have all enjoyed working with Alex and she leaves with our best wishes for the future.’

Cole left Cadbury last year after the confectionery giant was taken over by Kraft. She headed the corporate affairs department since 2007 and had been at the company for ten years.

Cole took over at Freuds to replace another former ITV comms director Nicola Howson, who was promoted to the newly created CEO post after four years at the agency.